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As a young entrepreneur I was always looking for ways to brand my small companies. I didn’t want to hire a firm and I was always open to learning. These are some things I’ve learned along the way that you might find helpful.

My top 5 ways of building a brand for your small business - without paying a dime.

Build a Website A website is something that almost any small business owner can build and maintain on his/her own without too much difficulty. There are a dozen or more free services out there that will not only give you free hosting but help you build a website as well.

Market Your Website Using free directories and forums, begin to grow your web presence so that you start bringing visitors to your website. Also be sure to tell all of your friends, family, and clients about your new website.

Create a Positioning Statement Take an hour or so to sit down and brainstorm. Decide what type of business you have, who you are marketing to, and why you are different from your competition. Take this information and formulate it into a 30 second long statement that you can easily memorize. Now, whenever someone asks what you do, you can project a clear and consistent image of your company. These statements will also assist you in maintaining a consistent image in other areas of your company.

Call or Visit Potential Clients No matter what type of business you are in it can be very valuable to call or visit potential clients or customers. Even though cold calling is usually unsuccessful in getting a customer on the spot - it can be very good at placing your company in their mind. This is what branding is all about. Using your positioning statement above can compound results from this - projecting a consistent image of your company into whatever circle you are in.

Offer Knowledge to the Community Offer to speak out at a local gathering. If you are an expert in your field you should offer at least some of that knowledge to the community in order to further your image. It is relatively easy to find people looking for free speakers - use the opportunity to brand yourself to a room full of people. Another way to do this is to write free articles for magazines or newspapers or the internet. Getting your name out as an expert in your field will increase the public awareness of your brand. For free.

With a little bit of effort and some learning along the way, it is easy for small business owners to profit from even free branding. Try some of these ideas and see for yourself. Branding is not a joke, even for small businesses it is a neccessity

Mason hipp is a life long entrepreneur that is using his experience to help bring other people into success by helping them with Small Business Branding and Identity. His experience in this field has led to the creation of a unique company that offers clear and profitable Corporate Identity Services for Small Business

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1. It “sells itself.” I don’t need to market.

Okay, you might have a solid product or service. You might even routinely satisfy your customers. They might even send their friends and family to you. But wait. Is that your product or service selling itself? No (that is, unless your widgets have learned to speak). That’s one of your customers playing out-of-the-goodness-of-my-heart salesperson for you. Yeah, word-of-mouth is nice, and if it’s happening for you, congratulations! It’s a sign of a great product or service. But relying on it exclusively can hurt you. Yes, six degrees of separation and all that, but counting on those connecting conversations to consistently mention you, especially down the line, is a bad gamble. Word of mouth needs help. A kick in the butt: a reminder to your customers of their good experience with you and an enticing offer to potential new customers to give you a try. Providing this kick is what a well-conceived branding and marketing strategy should do. At Brand Identity Guru (www.brandidentityguru.com), we’ve got some BIG boots.

2. “One of these things…looks just like the other”

You might sell red cars, and Johnny Big Wheel down the street might sell a similar blue car. But what’s under the hood? Even better question: what’s under the hood that makes your better than the blue car? This is the essence of differentiation in the marketplace, and if you’re not playing up the things about you that make you differentand betterthan your competition, your marketing is driving nowhere. At Brand Identity Guru (www.brandidentityguru.com), we know how to steer a marketing campaign that leverages differentiation to build your brand and increase your bottom line.

3. Liar, liar, your business is on fire and up and smoke

If you think word-of-mouth is powerfully working for you, it’s just a fraction of the punch a bad buzz can pack. The best way to a bad buzz? Over promising and under delivering. It will kill you. That’s why it’s important to be truthful in your marketing. Say what you can do. Not what you wish you could do, or might be able to do. If you must err, do so on the side of under promising and over delivering.

4. One-trick marketing is like a no-trick magician

It won’t do anything, and people won’t pay to see your show. To get your message to resonate in a 21st century market, you need to make your appeal in every corner the market looks. Print advertising, direct mail, online, telemarketing, public relations, and in person. In every place, a consistent brand image and message.

5. Microsoft Word clipart is for junior high book reports, not corporate identities

A logo is the face of your company, so it must be unique and memorable. Not available for millions to place into whatever bake sale flyer they’re working on at the moment. But a corporate identity is more than a logo. It’s your company’s unique value proposition and its products and servicesall instantly recognizable on sight of your logo, name and tagline.

6. Don’t be visually absent

Talk can be cheap if it’s not paired with a strong visual presence. Well-conceived visuals connected with your market makes your message stick, no matter the medium. Brand Identity Guru is an agency that can drench any marketing effort with huge vats of sticky visual honey, even if you’re currently bone dry.

7. The typewriter and telegraph are cool machines, but not to use today

A business owner by nature has to have a little bit of Evil Knievel in him, but when it comes to technology, he or she is often more of a cowardly lion. That’s understandable. You got into your business because you know it, like it and can put food on the table with it. Not because you like to tinker with every new business technological innovation that comes down the pike. However, cutting edge technology can be a powerful profit-generating tool for your business, especially when it comes to marketing, and Brand Identity Guru (www.brandidentityguru.com), can help you find your technological sweet spot to get your message out.

8. If an employee’s 14-year-old son designs your website, it will be painfully obvious

A website must have a nice look, but that’s a small part of a good web presence. You have to give your prospect information they need and close the sale fast. Otherwise, they’ll surf on by to a competitor’s website. In today’s digital marketplace, your website must be an integral part of your overall sales strategy. Not just a token presence. More than ever, prospective customers are researching their buying decisions on the web. If your site doesn’t substantiate who you are and your offerings, educate, inspire and finally motivate your visitors to buy, your online presence isn’t strong enough. Brand Identity Guru (www.brandidentityguru.com), knows how to strengthen it.

9. You have a website, but don’t tell anybody

Having a website is pointless if no one sees it. That’s why it’s just as important to drive traffic to your website as it is to have one. How do you do that? A great way is through traditional advertising like billboards, print ads, signage and printing the web address on all your marketing collateral. Online, there’s search engine optimization, banner ads, online advertorials, keyword purchases, links and cross-promotion strategies. A good mix of online and offline traffic strategies along with solid branding will drive traffic to your website.

10. “I don’t need to be in the paper”

On the contrary, editorial coverage carries more credibility than any kind of paid advertising you can do. Getting it, however, is difficult. Only a well-conceived public relations strategy that targets media outlets your prospective customers frequent will get the job done. But it’s not just about writing press releases. It’s about providing relevant information to the media outlets you’re trying to get into and cultivating relationships with key editors and journalists. If you’re successful, you’ll see your name in print and a bigger number on the bottom line.

11. Branding done yourself is branding done badly

Given the choice of doing branding yourself and not doing it at all, you may be better off not doing it all. There are few things worse for a business than an “amateurish” image, and that’s usually the result with DIY branding. Even if you know how to do some graphic design work or are a decent writer, good branding takes strategic know-how and the finesse and time to get it just rightthings only a good branding agency like Brand Identity Guru can offer.

12. If you think your employees aren’t part of your brand
You’re wrong.

Your brand is the face of your company in every interaction with the outside world, and your employees interact with it quite a bit. On the phone, on sales calls, at schmoozing and networking events, or in informal settings, you must train your employees to represent your company in a way consistent with its brand image. Doing so can ensure you have an army well-groomed brand ambassadors out there.

13. Failing to track your branding campaign’s success can lead to future failure

If you don’t make your market’s reaction to your branding effort your business, your business will suffer mainly because you won’t know where to go next. Successful branding is a constantly evolving process, and if you don’t learn from your mistakes, you’ll continually repeat themand make more! On the other hand, once you know what your most successful strategies are, you can build off of them. Any branding agency worth its salt will be able to effectively track the success of your campaign.

14. Don’t forget the clients who got you here, keep good relations

As businesses grow, they sometimes forget the little people who contributed to their success. Don’t. Those who got you here can be an invaluable resource to you even if their business isn’t as important as it was. Since they’ve known you for a long time, they can offer valuable counsel as to the future direction your company, such as offering their opinion on new products or services. They can also continue singing your praises as another satisfied customer. Plus, you never know when a little fish might eat a big lunch and become a big fish to you again.

Scott White is President of Brand Identity Guru a leading Corporate Branding and Branding Research firm in Boston, MA.

Brand Identity Guru specializes in creating corporate and product brands that increase sales, market share, customer loyalty, and brand valuation.

This Article may be freely copied as long as it is not modified and this resource box accompanies the article, together with working hyperlinks.

Over the course of his 15-year branding career, Scott White has worked in a wide variety of industries: high-tech, manufacturing, computer hardware and software, telecommunications, banking, restaurants, fashion, healthcare, Internet, retail, and service businesses, as well as numerous non-profit organizations.

Brand Identity Guru clients include: Sun Life Financial, Coca Cola, HP, Sun, Nordstrom, American Federal Mortgage, Franklin Sports and many others, including numerous emerging growth companies.

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Branding: it’s a term that carries great weight in the world of advertising. Successful branding is best illustrated by the world’s most prominent corporations, but it’s no less important to the small business owner. Your Brand is your identity; it’s every single puzzle piece, fitted into the big picture of your company. From your name and logo to your business philosophy and corporate mission; from your advertising campaign message to your design elements; from your products and services; all that is owned, produced, stated, sold and marketed by your company falls under the broad heading of your Brand.

What exactly is a “brand?” The term probably originated at a time when when ours was a strictly agricultural society. Ranchers take a branding iron to their cattle, as a way to signify they OWN those cows. Likewise, modern corporations choose a logo to brand their name into the mind of the consumer. Every time you label an ad or website with your company logo; every time you take a political stance on behalf of your corporation, you’re putting your brand into effect. And if a brand indicates ownership, then it should be your ultimate mission to dominate, or own, your niche. Brand your company. Own the cow.

How do you determine your style of branding? Analyze your audience. Zero in on the group you’re trying to reach. Are they male, female, or both? What’s the age group and economical level? What are their spending habits, their values? How do they TALK? What are they concerned about? What do they think they NEED? Where will their focus be in six months? And most importantly, how does your marketable product fit into the scheme? If you never really get to know your audience, you can read all the marketing how-to strategies in the world, and it isn’t going to mean diddly-squat for your business. It isn’t going to help you build your brand.

What’s the next step? Always, always, always put yourself in their shoes. Jump right into their heads, if you can. Think of your audience during the business-plan conception process. How do they communicate? What do they find visually appealing? Are you marketing to senior citizens? Use bigger fonts, a nostalgic tone, and a morally forthright attitude. Is it the filthy, stinking rich whom you’re trying to attract? Save the Crazy Eddie shtick, because money is no object here. Every bit of energy used to promote your brand should be focused toward winning over your key customer.

There will be a time when you completely lose sight of who you’re trying to attract. This, in turn, dilutes the power of your brand. You’ll be in the middle of writing an ad, when suddenly your head is racing with potential buyer types. This happened to me once during my writing stint with a digital media company who sold Santa Claus greetings. In my sales letter, which went on for pages and pages, there was no limit to what Santa could do! He could praise tiny tots for using the potty. He could play matchmaker to a couple of young lovers. He could patch up an argument you had with Aunt Freida in Topeka. All of this was great, but it was really convoluting Who We Were as a company, and our Santa was becoming a Jack Frost of all trades. It was no good! So we went back to square one. And through simple words and a more narrow focus on our original audience of children, we finally captured the Magic of Christmas that we had originally intended to be Our Brand.

Reflect your brand in everything you do; from your website design, to your public relations, to how you go about selling your product. Once you’ve done this, the next step is to create Brand Awareness. This is achieved through consistency. You can dream up the most brilliant ad campaign on the planet, but if you’re not consistent about putting it in place, you’ll never establish brand recognizability.

If the tone of your company is “fun, light and noncontroversial”, steer clear of anti-war demonstrations. If Arial is your font of choice, then don’t go switching it up mid-campaign and putting out affiliate program materials using Tahoma. If tongue-in-cheek humor is how you attract attention, don’t line your website borders with super-mushy personal ads. Ask yourself: will this resonate with my key customer? And use your logo and company tagline wherever possiblein your email correspondence, on your website, as your letterhead, on your business cards, in your advertising and on your product packaging. Remind people of who you are. Burn your brand into their minds.

To some extent, branding is following the herd… emulating respected companies that capture what you’d like to be known for. Still, a wise entrepreneur must never forget that today’s success story is tomorrow’s dot-com that went under. “What sold” for someone else may not work for your company. Just because Joe Baloney made millions selling with a bilingual circus clown doesn’t mean that will work for you… or that anyone’s even going to find it remotely interesting in six months. The market changes like the tide, depending on what direction society is going in. Where they were before, which way they’re headed, and wherever it’s likely they’ll end up… socially, economically, ethically, politically, culturally, intellectually, psychologically, philosophically.

How will you know that you’ve branded successfully? When people start listening to you. Not just hearing what you say, but letting you call the shots. You’ll know it when people start imitating you, too. You’ll start seeing knock-offs of your products and your company image. This may flatter you or it may annoy you, but when it happens, it’s your cue to lead the pack in a new direction. That’s how to stay on top of the Branding Game.

The day that you find yourself functioning as a real, live spokesman for a group of individuals, is the day you’ve achieved Brand Recognition. The day that you make the front page news headlines is the day you’ve become a household name. But a word to the wise: once your brand achieves true power, someone will try and take you down. Remind them that you own this cow.

Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. Use with permission.

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